Research In Motion (RIM) will be broadcasting the BlackBerry 10 launch event today via webcast, beginning at 10 am ET, which will happen simultaneously in New York, Toronto, London, Paris, Dubai, Johannesburg, Jakarta and Delhi. This day will mark the official launch of its new platform - BlackBerry 10, as well as the unveiling of the first two BlackBerry 10 smartphones.

While, details on the smartphones and their availability will be announced at the event, however the tech media world is filled with rumors related to the upcoming smartphones, which is, a full touchscreen handset Z10 and a QWERTY keypad equipped handset X10. Hence, Gizbot has come up with a roundup of all that one should know regarding the upcoming platform and the handsets that will be based on it.

Whats New in BlackBerry 10 OS?

BlackBerry 10 unlike the previous generations of BlackBerry OS is based on a Unix-like platform called QNX. It features an all-new UI and home screen with live tiles similar to Windows Phone 8 than BlackBerry 7. Further, RIM's new UI is based around concepts including Hub, Peek and Flow.

BlackBerry Flow

Flow is nothing but the one-handed swipe access given to the various features in BlackBerry 10. Flow is built around the idea of enabling users to quickly gain access to the information they need with simple gestures.

BlackBerry Hub

Hub is a key feature of the new OS allowing users to get all the messages and notifications in one place. Hub is always accessible whatever the user is doing. Peek is a feature of Hub, which allows users to access inbox, mails, messages, social networking updates and more without navigating away from the main app that is being used.

BlackBerry Balance

As RIM is known to be a big player in the corporate space, BlackBerry 10 offers Balance feature that can separate work apps and personal apps. With the BlackBerry Balance feature, users will be able to tap a button and the device will swap between personal and business.

BlackBerry Camera

RIM has licensed the camera technology from Scalado for BlackBerry 10 for a new feature called timeshift. With this feature, users can capture multiple shots in a group photo and select the best photo for individual faces to create a perfect shot.

BlackBerry Keyboard

The first BlackBerry 10 device - Z10 with touchscreen display will come with an on-screen keyboard touting the looks of a traditional BlackBerry keyboard with word predictions.

BBM

With BlackBerry Messenger users will be able to make video calls and share their screen with others. Moreover, it is revamped to look more modern with the incorporation of Flow and Hub features.

BB10 smartphones

BlackBerry 10 has had plenty of hardware leaks revealing two smartphones as mentioned above - a full touchscreen device and a QWERTY keyboard incorporated handset. Both are rumored to hit the retail shelves in the first quarter of the year.

However, the specs and other details expect for the QWERTY keyboard in X10 remain unclear. If the leaked pictures are to be believed, the keys on the QWERTY keyboard will be separated by silver bars.

Well, whatever may be the rumors, but just few hours from now, RIM will unleash its new operating system - which is the most significant reboot of RIM's software lineup since long and it is believed to bring a slew of desirable handsets this year, besides the two being launched today. The launch of BlackBerry 10 is claimed to be crucial moment to RIM as it will compete with the likes of Android and iOS that are dominating the market and also Windows Phone 8.

Canadian handset vendor RIM had almost lost its ground to Android and iOS smarttphones. But with the launch of BB10 based smartphones RIM can get back the grip on the enterprise consumer base, which it greatly lost. To put is correctly, BlackBerry 10 is RIM's chance to prove its presence in the market.